A Collection of Pen & Ink Sketches by Boston Architect Harry Stephenson, 1872-89

A small archive consisting of an incomplete manuscript account of an 1872 canoe trip: "on Lake George and the Hudson River," together with six holograph letters from 1874-89. Both the manuscript and letters were written and illustrated with several whimsical pen and ink sketches by Harry Stephenson, who depicts various scenes of himself and his companion paddling about "in two Rob-Roy canoes." The manuscript is titled: "Canoe-bial bliss or Benedicts in search of pleasure. By a Successful Searcher. Illustrated by Our special Artist." It consists of eight quarto sheets: two illustrated title pages followed by three consecutive preliminary sheets (an introduction with illustrations), and three random loose sheets of the incomplete narrative. Stephenson began the manuscript in 1875, as indicated in a letter from January of that year: "There is in my mind now an idea of getting all my sketches together and writing up a little story of our several trips … Don’t you think the Hudson River trip would be the best one … ." All six holograph letters are addressed to Stephenson’s summer companion "Frank," and are illustrated with sketches, including one of Stephenson in a canoe "Starting out from Lynn Beach" (just north of Boston). Stephenson was a well-known architect in the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood of Boston. An early proponent of the Colonial Revival-style, he is best known today for his design of St. John’s Church on Sumner Hill. An attractive small archive of Stephenson's comic pen and ink sketches. A list of the six illustrated letters is available.…